It is quarter finals day at the Fever-Tree Championships on Friday with all four matches being played out on Centre Court under what are expected to be blue skies on a scorching day for top class tennis and the eight remaining men battle for semi-final spots.
A number of stars have made it through to this stage and we have a couple of real tasty matches on the card as the preparation for Wimbledon continues for all eight men. That said this is a decent title in its own right and one well worth winning.
Day 4 Recap
It was a truncated day in the tournament on Thursday with just the three singles matches but Nick Kyrgios and Kyle Edmund produced a bit of a classic with the Australian coming through in a deciding set. There were much more comfortable wins for Novak Djokovic and Adrian Mannarino who both came through in straight sets to set up a meeting with each other.
It was our first bad day on the betting front this week with our one bet getting blown out of the water as Grigor Dimitrov but in a particularly poor performance to reduce us to six winners from eight bets for the week.
Marin Cilic vs Sam Querrey
Surprisingly it is the number one seed which gets the action going on Friday when Marin Cilic takes on Sam Querrey in what is a repeat of the semi-final at Wimbledon last year which Cilic won in four sets.
That is the only the second time in five meetings that these two haven’t gone the distance so we should be expecting a tight match here. I think we will get it too because both men look to be serving well and if we’re honest the return game of the pair of them is very much their weakness so this has the feel of a tiebreak laden battle about it.
With that in mind I’m a little surprised that the game line for this one is set at 23.5. Of the 19 sets they have played against each other, all but two on grass, 11 of them have been beyond 11 games so two extended sets to cover this has every chance. If we see a third set the over will land safely so my money is heading in that direction.
Feliciano Lopez vs Nick Kyrgios
The defending champion Feliciano Lopez continues his title defence in the second match of the afternoon on Friday when he takes on the maverick superstar showman that is Nick Kyrgios for a place in the second round.
Lopez has only played one match this week after his second round opponent Milos Raonic withdrew before their game while Kyrgios has come through a pair of three setter so it will be interesting to see who is in the better shape here. These two met in Stuttgart last week when Kyrgios won in three sets and I wouldn’t be surprised if this one goes the distance. I was initially looking at going over in games here too as I expect this to be a serving clinic but the line is 25.5 and there is little margin for error there. That might need a third set to cover so I’m put off by that.
Adrian Mannarino vs Novak Djokovic
All eyes will be on Novak Djokovic to see if he can continue to look impressive as he builds up to Wimbledon. He takes on an Adrian Mannarino for whom the grass court season looks to have come around at the right time after his awful time of things on the clay.
These two have met at Wimbledon in each of the last two years and while Mannarino has been beaten in straight sets on both occasions he has taken a set to a tiebreak which suggests he could keep this competitive but having taken Djokovic on and had my pants pulled down on Thursday I’m in no rush to repeat that.
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Jeremy Chardy vs Frances Tiafoe
The quarter finals finish with the weakest of the matches on paper but one which could easily be the most competitive too when Jeremy Chardy takes on Frances Tiafoe for a place in the semi-final of what is a decent sized ATP event.
These two meet for the first time at main tour level and with just one place between them in the world rankings they could be hard to separate. Chardy is in fantastic form on the grass at the minute though and that could be the difference. He has won Surbiton and made the final in the Netherlands last week and has cruised through to here. Tiafoe has begun this week well but my gut feeling is he’s met his match here. I see Chardy coming through here with a little in hand.
Tips
Back M.Cilic vs S.Querrey – Over 23.5 games for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
Back it here:
WON – Back J.Chardy (-2.5 games) to beat F.Tiafoe for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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